In the post “10 Essential Lessons for Healing from Emotional Traumas“, I outlined the key lessons that helped me achieve mental health, inner peace, and fulfillment.

Today I’m going to start this series “Emotional Healing” by talking about the first lesson of this previous post, which is:

“Emotional traumas are as real and destructive as cancer. If left untreated, they will consume you over time.”

*Click here to see the complete list.

WHY RUNNING AWAY FROM THE PAIN IS A TRAP

Many of us try to avoid facing the nasty effects of traumas because it hurts as hell and nobody in their right mind will want to feel trapped in pain, fear, or despair.

To do so, we often choose common strategies to run away from traumas, such as:

Addiction: drugs, medications, gambling, sex, pornography, work, shopping, food, romantic relationships.

Dissociation: daydreaming, getting lost in a book, or movie, playing a videogame for too many hours, etc.

Fanatism: becoming obsessed with a religion, a political party or ideology, a sports team, etc.

However, the only way out of a trauma is to go through it, not away from it.

As Jung wisely said:

“What you resist persists.”

If you try to succeed in any area of your life while being deeply wounded, the traumas will hold you back, and the pain will make you escape using defense mechanisms like fight, flight, or freeze.

This vicious cycle will repeat itself endlessly, and you will see the years going by without being able to put yourself together, let alone achieve a certain level of satisfaction.

🎁 So, my humble advices to you are:

• Start taking private therapy now (if you can afford it) or join a therapeutic group led by a qualified professional. And then:

• Delve deeply as you can into your emotions, memories, and belief systems to work on the cause of your misery.

• Release the trapped emotions from your past in a safe environment with professional help.

• Learn how to forgive yourself and others.

• Outgrow the dysfunctional patterns and behaviors you use as a shield through inner work and self-analysis.

• Give yourself a second chance to start over more healthily.

• Finally, turn your hardships into awareness and wisdom for yourself and others.

I know from experience how devastating traumas can be, and there were times when I thought of giving up on the healing process because it felt too confusing and painful.

But deep inside I always heard a gentle voice saying:

“If I give up on this, I’ll be giving up on myself. What else will I have left?”

And the same voice would reply:

“Nothing! Nobody!“

These words seemed so true that I could never ignore them, never!

And here I am, 9 years later enjoying the great satisfaction of having worked deeply on myself.

Although there is still more to be done, the huge difference between the person I used to be and the one I became leaves me with no doubt that:

Life shouldn’t be solely about pursuing external love, power, money, fame, or success. Although important, these things are fleeting.

The most valuable investment we can make is in understanding, nurturing, and developing ourselves to our utmost potential. Everything else is of lesser importance.

As Jung also said:

“Who looks outside dreams.

Who looks inside awakes.”

Please never give up on yourself. 🌹

Check this video about some effects of trauma by Dr. Kim Sage.
She does incredible work of making psychoeducation accessible to anyone.

🎁 Related posts:

Reading Our Anger

5 Essential Courses for Mental Health and Self-Improvement

Top 5 Reasons Therapy May Fail You